Beloved Illusions
by absent writer
Summary: Set postKyoto. When Tsuzuki runs into a figure from his mortal life while on a new case, he must face the repercussions of his unresolved crimes with the interference of both friends and foe...no pairings yet.


Unhappy Illusions

By: me, obviously, aka absent writer

Anyway, just to introduce this story before anyone reads it, I promise it won't take too long. This is my first Yami no Matsuei fic---and 90 percent of prospective readers flee in terror…maybe I shouldn't have said that, but I hope you enjoy it anyway, as I made the effort to make this a long chapter because it drives me nuts when someone writes a tiny little 500-word prologue and leaves it there for a month.

Right, anyway this takes place about 2-3 years post-Kyoto, I haven't decided pairings yet, but if there are any they will revolve around Tsuzuki. By the way, this is a Tsu-heavy story so any other non-rapidTsufan should move on to undoubtedly superior fics.

Enjoy!

Also, I don't and will never own Yami no Matsuei/Descendants of Darkness.

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Looking up at the sky, one would see an upside down woven basket with pinpricks of light shining through to illuminate the darkness within. There were no clouds to blanket the earth as a sharp chill invaded the streets of Tokyo. On the ground, a young nurse burst out the front doors of Tokyo Hospital nevertheless. She was still in light blue scrubs, and a plain name tag pinned to her chest read "Ayumi", and the photo of a smiling brunette below the letters matched the face of the girl, who was pulling on a light down jacket as she trotted into the street.

She tugged the sleeve down her arm to glance at the watch on her right wrist. The glowing numbers read 11:59 pm. "Oh, God…" she moaned and covered the watch. "There goes the evening…and I was supposed to go out with Ruka tonight…I hope she isn't too mad. This is only the second time I blew her off…that's even worse!" she lightly slapped herself on the cheeks, and when she brushed the tag on her shirt she hastily tugged it off and tucked it deep into her coat pocket.

"Walking around with that on, it's like I'm asking for some creep to pop up and drag me off somewhere. Course, they'd have to dig me up cuz Ruka's going to kill me…" She ran across the street, mindful of speeding cars in the dark that blew her hair into her eyes. She brushed it aside impatiently but froze when her name was called.

"Ayumi…" The male voice came from behind her, in a dark alleyway littered with trash.

_Oh my God! Stupid name tag!_

She internally screamed to herself when a heavy hand landed on her shoulder.

"Don't be scared Ayumi-chan…don't you recognize me?"

Sure enough, the voice was very familiar, as was the weight on her shoulder, and she turned around to check. It was a man-curly chestnut hair blowing in the cool wind, warm blue eyes, and a kind smile on his lips she had not seen in months.

"Sa-Satoshi-kun?!" she yelped in surprise. "But I thought-I thought that we were through!" The memory of packed suitcases being loaded into a car without so much as a farewell glance flashed in front of her eyes. She shook her head, and the vision faded away, to be replaced by the flesh and blood in front of her. She took a step backwards, and his hand moved from her shoulder to cup her cheek.

"It's all over now…I'm here now, aren't I?" She could feel the warm breath on her neck, and she shivered slightly, caught between wonder and fear. He stroked her hair softly and then took her by the hand firmly, as if still in the habit, and gently pulled her into the darkened alley behind them.

"Whe-Where are we going? I don't know if—" Rather than speak out to remove her fears he instead continued out of the streetlamp's sight into the darkness. The contrast was so sharp only his arm remained in the yellow glow, gesturing to her.

"Let's start over again, Ayumi…isn't that what you wanted?" his voice sounded distant, but nevertheless alluring. She paused for only a moment, then took the offered hand, and disappeared into the darkness.

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"Tsuzuki?" a gentle, soft voice floated across the room and to the sleeping, purple-eyed shinigami. Or, at least, to the giant lump tucked underneath the thick comforter, pillows and all.

Through the rusted window that was permanently stuck open bird songs could be heard. The early morning sunlight shone in unimpeded to illuminate the cramped, but pleasant room. It was a small bedroom dominated by a king-size bed in the middle, occupant included, with a small nightstand and a built-in closet on the side wall. Piles of dirty laundry and dog-eared books were scattered across the floor, making it unclear if the room had carpet or hardwood. Rather than an actual door a wide doorway led the way to an equally small living room with glass windows for walls. Rickety white tables and chairs all littered with dirty dishes decorated those rooms. The source of the dishes, the kitchen, was barely visible from the bedroom, and it showed distressing signs of overuse.

However, there was one visible person in the room, another shinigami, in fact. He was for all appearances a teenaged boy with sandy blond hair and wide, impossibly emerald eyes.

He was dressed in his typical outfit, jean jacket and pants with sneakers and an orange T-shirt. Though his attire was somewhat sloppy his posture was not, and he was definitely more awake and prepared for a new day of work at Meifu than the man-sized lump still obliviously lying on the bed.

"Hey partner…" the boy whispered again to the lump. "You hear that?"

The snoring sounds had ceased, as it seemed the other shinigami was in fact awake by now but just too lazy to get up. The living alarm clock seemed to recognize this, and so he continued in that low voice.

"The birds are chirping, the sun is shining, people are walking around…everyone's awake and starting a new, productive day…except for you, it seems. Still snoozing away while the rest of the world gets to work, so…GET YOUR ASS OUT OF BED!!!!!" the gentle whisper gave way to the righteous screech that jarred Tsuzuki out of bed. With a yell he threw the blankets off of him to further coat the floor and rolled off the mattress.

"What the…what happened? Eh, Hisoka?" he turned to face the glaring teen. "Is it morning already? I must've not heard you or something…heh heh…"

"Like hell you didn't!" The teen, Hisoka, stomped around the bed to physically force Tsuzuki to get moving. Though used to such hectic mornings he still blushed slightly at Tsuzuki's attire, a loose white tank top and a pair of striped boxers. "You're…you're not even dressed yet!"

"Well, I just got up…" the older-much older- man replied, trying to smooth down his unruly brown locks.

"Just go!" Hisoka shoved him over to the dingy closet. Tsuzuki pulled out his customary black suit, and despite its formal appearance it was painfully obvious who would suit its impression more. With an exasperated sigh Hisoka walked out of the bedroom, stepping high to avoid tripping on the piles of junk on the floor.

"Man, look at all this cra—agh!" though successfully maneuvering around the laundry mountain ranges one of Tsuzuki's shoes lurking beneath a crumpled piece of paper caught the teen by the ankle and sent him sprawling to the floor.

"Oh thanks Hisoka," Tsuzuki reached down and pulled out the offending item out of the mess, "I was looking for that…oh…are you okay?"

Noticing that he was still sprawled on the ground, Tsuzuki bent down to observe his fallen partner. Not noticing that his partner had just reached new levels of anger, his innocent smile vanished as he gasped for air, Hisoka had wrapped his fingers around his throat and began choking him.

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20 minutes later the pair arrived at Meifu, Hisoka leading the way and a disheveled Tsuzuki following in sheepish Inu-mode. The ever-constant wave of cherry leaves blowing up from the concrete walkway into passerby's faces did nothing to help ease the mood as the younger one brushed them away impatiently with his denim sleeve.

As the snow-white building came within sight Tsuzuki's ears drooped, Tatsumi was waiting for them in the entryway. The stiff blue-eyed glance said it all, one, they were late, and two, there was a new case.

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"Oh, Tsu-zu-ki!" and the friendly scientist named Watari were what met the said shinigami when he entered the conference room. The blond genius was in his customary outfit, a white lab coat with a small owl flitting around his head. Unfortunately for everyone in the room, in his right hand he held a clear, glass flask with a frothy pink liquid sloshing around inside. Especially unfortunately for everyone in the room, the liquid was splashing about even though Watari was not moving the glass.

"Wh-what exactly is that?" Tsuzuki stuttered, and when Watari moved the mysterious liquid/new species closer to his face he took a giant step backward into the secretary who had followed him into the room.

"Oh, Tatsumi!" he yelped. "Thank God you're here! I was only late cause my alarm clock didn't ring, and then Hisoka tried to choke me and now Watari has…er…something with him and he's smiling, which means somewhat bad's gonna happen to me. It always does!"

"Only because you're fool enough to eat anything, so you have no one to blame but yourself" Hisoka jumped in from his seat at the round main table by a projector screen.

And in front of his partner was…a basket of muffins. For a moment everything else in the room seemed to blur and only the basket was in focus, he could count at least three different flavors…blueberry, choc—"Don't even think about it, 004".

Watari interrupted him.

"I made those, and they're not for free, you know."

"004?" Tsuzuki asked, unsuccessfully tearing his gaze away from the basket on the table.

"Well it's best for a scientist to not get personally involved with a test subject during an experiment run, you see."

"E-Experiment? You don't mean…_that_?!" He gestured wildly at the possibly alive pink liquid still splashing precariously in the flask clutched by Watari's hand.

In fact, he could see that the force of its movements was strong enough to force Watari to grip it by both hands now.

_Oh my God…it's trying to escape…_

"Yes, _that_" he replied, grunting as the flask actually began to jerk his arms around.

"Erg…_this_ is one of my little…er…side-projects. Sex-changing potion attempt #342, and if 342 tries won't work…well we'll be finding out soon enough! Unless of course, you don't want a muffin. From the looks of things…" he cast a golden eye at both his and Hisoka's rumpled clothing and the fingerprints on his neck, "you haven't eaten breakfast yet, right?"

Tsuzuki nodded sullenly, "But the only things I eat have already died! Not wounded, not sick, and _definitely_ not eating my co-workers!" the pink substance, though deceptively liquid at first glance, and managed to slip out of the flask to wrap around one of Watari's fingers.

"Whoa!" he yelled and knocked it back into the jar. Reaching into his coat pocket, he pulled out a Duracell battery with several wires attached, and jammed the metal ends into the liquid. It trembled, then took on a suspiciously flaccid state.

"I wouldn't say it's alive, per say…to qualify for that term it has to have DNA, consume things—not that it hasn't tried that one, excrete waste products—don't go into my lab, grow—this one has but I find that encouraging, and attempt to reproduce—hasn't done that yet. Anyway, I can assure you with all the dignity my position has allowed me that it will definitely not kill you!"

Tsuzuki blinked and thought for a moment. Watari _was_ a scientist, in his own way, and it's not like he would ever risk his safety, right? He reached out to take the flask, dutifully ignoring the heat it appeared to be emitting by itself, and tilted it towards his opened mouth…

Only to be stopped by Tatsumi, who had been silently listening in on this little conversation and was now pulling the vial from Tsuzuki's hands, to the "scientist's" disappointment. Hisoka rolled his eyes and took one of the muffins for himself, experiment run or not.

"Though we must all admire Watari's…dedication…to his side-projects _at the department's expense_" he added with a nasty glare at the chastened blond and at his owl too for good measure, "Please recall, Tsuzuki, that as you are, despite your appearances and demeanor, a shinigami, and that being so you cannot die. Even if this potion is as dangerous as I'm sure we all expect it to be, it wouldn't not kill you anyway. Harm, transform, cripple, in all likelihoods yes, but you would survive the ordeal. I would advise you to focus on what people mean when they speak to you, only my words never seem to survive long in that barren landscape of yours you call a functioning brain."

He took the flask and handed it back to Watari, who seemed all-too pleased to get it back.

"Now take this abomination and get rid of it--or--kill it, do whatever it takes to keep the building safe. Right after this meeting."

He stalked over to the table and took one of the muffins from the basket. Now that two people had taken one it was safe for Tsuzuki to have one for himself without Watari claiming debts on him later. Just as his hand skimmed over a chocolate chip Chief Konoe thumped heavily into the room just as the lights dimmed and the projector screen gleamed white, followed by Terazuma, Wakaba, and several officers of the security department who had been fellow guests at the Count's Christmas party.

To the unpleasant surprise of Hisoka, the two Hokkaido shinigami had decided to join them as well, and they immediately took seats on either side of the feminine-looking boy. Tsuzuki and Watari looked around suspiciously, there were far more people than usual. Though they all knew one another on a personal level, the reality was that over half of Japan was being represented in that small room.

And Tsuzuki had extra reason to be wary, as there were certainly not enough muffins in the basket for everyone. He looked around to see who had already taken one, Wakaba, Watari-though that was fair, as he had made them, Yuma…were there any left?! With a strangled yell he jerked out of his chair towards the basket on the opposite side of the table, but it was too late to save the last one from his rival agent, Terazuma.

He laughed at Tsuzuki's crest-fallen expression, "You snooze, you lose!" and he bit deeply into it.

"What flavor is it?" the purpled-eyed shinigami said quietly.

"What?" everyone turned towards the pair, confused.

"Uh…banana caramel, I guess…"

"I knew it…" he said softly, and settled back into his chair and buried his face into his folded sleeves, to the amusement of the staff.

"Hey" Watari prodded him, "Buck up there. You want some of mine?"

"R-Really?!"

"No."

Hisoka decided to add in acidly, "Terazuma's right, you only missed out because you slept in. Alarm clock my ass. You didn't even take the one Tatsumi gave you last Christmas out of the box.

"What?!" the brown-suited secretary asked, then turned to the cowering employee. "You lazy little—well you can just say goodbye to any bonuses for the next 10 years!"

"Actually…you've already taken them away for the next 50. Remember? You said that's how much of your time I've used up—" everyone burst out laughing, lightening the tension in the room for a bit. The atmosphere of happiness and peacefulness allowed the empathy to relax slightly. It had been over two years since their last major case—Kyoto—and they had all gotten used to these more light-hearted meetings since.

Chief Konoe, however, remained as serious as ever when a new case came around.

"If we can all get back to non-culinary-related business here…" everyone in the room turned to face the screen that Konoe and all the other department heads were standing in front of.

"I'm sure you're all wondering why so many groups are here today…as only one new case is being assigned." Everyone looked guilty for a second, then curious. Hisoka raised his hand, then quickly brought it back down to his side, berating himself inside his mind for this school habit, "Sorry about the delay" he glared pointedly at the still-moping Tsuzuki as if it were all his fault, all stemming from sleeping in late that morning, "So all the departments are needed?"

"Yes…it's not that our problem is really that urgent, it's just that it cannot really be contained in one area. Only with some news arrived last night that we've tied several unrelated cases together from all these districts. I'll let some of the other chiefs explain to the separate staffs…however, every agent is expected to report to all the heads of department as cooperation is essential. And I _expect_" he matched Hisoka's glare at Tsuzuki but aimed another one at Terazuma as well, who looked as if he were trying to suppress another one of his disastrous transformations, "there to be no foolishness on this case. It's time to put these rivalries aside and exercise some…_solidarity_."

"That's today's word on his vocabulary calendar. It means cooperation" Tatsumi whispered hoarsely to the rest of the room as the blank stares from all sides threatened to delay the meeting even longer.

"What do you mean, it can't be contained?" Wakaba asked timidly. Chief Konoe combined with the prospect of having more than one boss was too much for her.

Konoe coughed into his hand, then motioned to Watari. The blond scientist, after gently setting down the flask and assigning 003 to keep an eye on it, walked over to the projector and inserted the first slide. All heads turned to the screen as a single image appeared, an enlarged map of Northern Japan as well as Okinawa, with lines dividing it into several districts. Each colored area had several blue stars in it, some more than others.

"Each star is another victim" one of the other district heads announced, "And as you can see there is at least one for every district, and the Tokyo area is especially hard hit, with 12 people. The total is 42, and the Count, who could not be here with us today, as accounted for all of them in the Hall of Candles. The candles burnt out quickly, with no unusual signs. What was strange, however, was what we found on the bodies."

"Demon markings? Curses?" Tsuzuki threw out, "Things the murderer left behind?"

The other shinigami were silent, each counting in their heads how many they had lost in their own areas.

"Nothing, actually. That's the problem" Chief Konoe replied, then gestured to Watari again. The next slide popped up, this time with a picture of a body sprawled on the ground, as if it had just been dumped there with no attempt at burial. It was a young man, probably in his twenties or so, with cropped black hair and a rumpled business suit. An arm thrown over his eyes hid his face.

"The bodies had no signs on them at all, no wounds, no spell marks, and ground evidence suggests that they were all, though this is not really appropriate to say, 'killed' elsewhere. Most of the victims were dead when they were discovered by our agents, some of which are present here today, or by humans. Some of them had been taken to a hospital and unsuccessfully treated there for hours or even days, but inevitably all of them died of unknown causes."

"Could they explain what had happened to them?"

"No, not at all. You see, though the bodies were alive, they had no souls, so naturally the bodies, with no further purpose, eventually ceased all brain activity. When we examined one of them, it was found that there was no sign of a struggle, defensive wounds, etc…it was as if the soul had been taken rather peacefully…"

Former detective Terazuma, as sharp as ever, raked a hand through his hair and pointed out, "So then why are we involved in this? Don't souls just drift away naturally?"

Konoe answered immediately, "Two reasons. One, none of the souls have yet to be accounted for in the Judgement Hall, and two, all of the victims were on Meifu's 'priority list', that is, humans with high spiritual energy. People like Kazusa, remember her Hisoka, Tsuzuki?"

Both shinigami nodded their heads.

"People who are potential employees of the judgement bureau, and thanks to their heightened spiritual abilities are likely targets for demon attack, or anyone else threatened by their powers. Your name was actually briefly on the list, Hisoka." The blond teen just stared blankly at the corpse on the screen.

"And as these people were all being protected by some level of fuda shields by Meifu, it is safe to assume that their deaths were not accidental. Someone was deliberately searching out these people are possibly removing their souls. You should note that there was no trace of spiritual energy in any of the bodies. Like they got sucked dry. And we want to know how, and to protect anyone else who fits the victims' profiles. We have reason to believe that the victims were kept in captivity for some time before their deaths, as the 'lost and found' dates differ. Tsuzuki, Hisoka, a girl has gone missing from your district who was on the list, a 'Ayumi Soichiro', and there is a small chance that she is still alive and capable of telling us what is happening. So get on it."

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The meeting was ended and all the agents dismissed, each with some individual mission related to the case. Watari escorted Tsuzuki and Hisoka to one of the more unpleasant labs, the autopsy room.

"Konoe asked me to have Hisoka check out one of the bodies we collected, in case there's any emotion or thought left…it would help to know at least what the victim was thinking before the end"

As he opened the metal door and cold breeze wafted out and the scent of cleaning alcohol and even metal washed over them.

"Boy, what a great day I'm having…" Hisoka muttered as he stalked into the room. In the center, under a white lamp was the corpse, covered with a thin white plastic sheet with feet sticking out the other end. Watari pulled it off, and though unsightly stitched crossed the chest and stomach there was no blood, to everyone's relief.

As the scientist and Tsuzuki stood awkwardly off to the side, the latter gingerly avoiding a tray of surgical tools that had yet to be washed and sterilized, Hisoka stepped up to the head. It was a different person from the young man on the projector screen, this time it was an older woman. He kept his hands steady as he laid his palms on her forehead and shut his eyes. The other two watched his face closely, as it was possible for the teen to overload on emotions, and the feelings of a murder victim immediately before death are rarely tranquil.

In spite of their fears, however, Hisoka appeared to come through the ordeal with no trouble. When he opened his emerald eyes, he looked more confused than distressed.

"That's…strange…"

"What do you mean? Did you get anything?"

"Yeah…but it wasn't what I expected. She was…happy." Everyone was silent and couldn't help staring at the old woman's face. There was no agonized grimace, just as peaceful as in sleep, even a hint of a smile on her chapped lips.

Somehow, that was worse.

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Yay!! First extra-super-long chapter finished! Even though this is my first fic in this series I hope the characters weren't too OOC. There was a lot of Tsu-bashing, but that was intentional. Keep in mind that this fic is set post-Kyoto, by out 3 years.

Heads up: I know the manga series never resolved the Hisoka issue with his messed up parents and the shikigami thing, but in this fic let's just pretend he did get Kurikara to be his shinigami, and he's a parasitic type. Out of conveniency, I have no idea if this happens in the story or not, though supposed Matsushita is re-starting the series sometime soon. And up go all the hopes of YnM fans.

Pairings: I have no idea yet. Yes, Muraki will be in this story, sometime soon, I hope. Unlike my YGO fics I do have an ending planned for this fic, a really really unsatisfying one so I can right a sequel, which has no ending planned.

Rating M just to be safe. No lemon planned, possibly citrus flavoring (in Muraki's chapters, of course).

And as always, review, review, review, cause I have no other way of knowing if anybody has read this. Yes there are hits, but those could be people taking look at my disclaimer and leaving right away. I don't know when the next update will come, I'm on vacation but there are some problems with how long I get to use the computer and my handwriting sucks.

Meanwhile any spare readers from YGO will be asking, "Why have you foolishly started yet another story when you have two over here you haven't finished yet?"

My answer: "I have no idea what you're talking about" throws tarp over complaining readers and runs away screaming, "I promise! I'm writing their chapters as I run away!"

Review.


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